City to spend 140 million baht on Pattaya Beach beautification

[benny31]

City to spend 140 million baht on Pattaya Beach beautification

 

:Grin_Jump1:

 

(PattayaMail Source)

 

Pattaya will spend 140 million baht to upgrade landscaping along Pattaya Beach as it waits for government approval of its erosion-repair project.

Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome said Feb. 7 the planting of new trees and gardens, painting and other work will begin in March. The project is split into five zones, with the first zone to be improved running from the Dusit Thani hotel to Soi 6.

 

Pattaya City will spend 140 million baht to upgrade landscaping along Pattaya Beach and add another traffic lane the length of Beach Road whilst waiting for government approval of its beach erosion-repair project. Expect traffic snarls along Beach Road when the work begins in March.

 

 

 

The second zone, spanning the beachfront from Soi 6 to Central Road, is planned as the city’s main center for beach activities and will see workers spruce up the dolphin fountain. The third zone, running to Soi 11, will see improvements aimed at maximizing the enjoyment of public spaces, the mayor said, while zone 4, running down to Walking Street, will have gardens installed to serve as backdrops for tourists’ photos and relax after strolling along Walking Street.

Zone 5 was not mentioned.

The project also focuses smaller touches the mayor says will improve the image of the beachfront, such as replacing beach umbrellas to ensure they are all a uniform color along the entire three-kilometer stretch of shoreline.

Itthiphol added that in addition to the cosmetic changes, an additional traffic lane will be added to Beach Road. This will take away about 3 meters of the promenade along the 3 kilometer road, leaving the footpath, although it will be thinner.

The mayor said the landscaping upgrade would be done in parallel to the 380 million baht project to rebuild Pattaya Beach by refilling it with sand from a Rayong estuary. However, the plan has not yet been approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and work may not begin until at least the end of the year.

The 140 million baht the city plans to spend on beautification does come at a cost, however. The mayor said the funds were being diverted from the city’s 500 million baht construction of the new Pattaya football field on Soi Chaiyapruek near the indoor sports stadium. Completion of that facility, which was originally scheduled for the end of this year, is now uncertain.

Finally, Itthiphol said, the city’s crackdown on beach chair vendors is continuing. In addition to standardizing the colors of their umbrellas, the city is studying how many vendors should be allowed to operate and continuing to enforce Chonburi provincial regulations about how much of the sand the vendors can occupy.

The mayor said he hopes to see the beautification completed by year-end. Funds to do similarly on Jomtien Beach have been requested for next year.

 

 

 

 

[jerry]

First see what happens before i believe anything at all from these beautiful stories but probably it will

be 15 mill on some sort of improvement and the rest of the money will dissapear somehow .

[socrates]

another lane for traffic - and reducing the promenade is NOT a step forward in my opinion

[lordarunotai]

Doesn't seem too long since the last prolonged 'improvement' project was completed.

What is this obsession with trafic in Thailand, rather than making provision for more cars along the beach road, if they want to attract more tourists they should be looking at ways of diverting trafic from the beach area to make it more safe and pleasant for tourists.

A few things that spring to mind that would cost little more than some effort from the authorities are.

1) Removal of the hundreds of motorbikes for rent from the beach road and adjoining soi's.

2) Applying some sort of controll on all the songthaews driving around empty all day.

3) Providing parking areas for all the Thai tourists that now drive into Pattaya. (maybe my first point could help there?)

4) Removing the endless crap that is in the sand on the beach once in a while.

 

Is the mayors plan of building a skytrain along the beach road still ongoing? I havent heard anything about that for a while.

 

If this project go's ahead, where are the now all too frequent markets / festivals etc that adorn the beach road going to go? Or maybe they will still allowed so the city does not lose the rental income and then the pedestrians can walk in the road?

 

Where will the extra lane of trafic go at the end of beach road and it returns back to 2 lanes? All it will do is add to the current chaos at this location and create a bigger trafic jam along the beach rd.

 

How about the recent trafic lights / 'pedestrian crossings' that were added to the beach rd, yes the ones that frequently dont work and when they do work nobody takes any notice of.

 

Another thought for these funds would be to redirect them and complete the Thapraya rd / Jomtien second road 'improvements' that have already been ongoing for about 4 years, before starting new projects. Many of the areas 'completed' are already in need of serious maintenance / repair / renewal before the project is even completed. I do hope the beach road doesnt turn into another such fiasco.

 

Seems to me they are planning to put a lot of things in an already crowded place that will after be significantly reduced in size! This mayor really seems to have lost the plot, if indeed he had one in the first place?

 

But what really matters, at least all the umbrellas will be the same colour. :02:

Edited February 26, 2012 by lordarunotai

[marko456]

130 million baht in payoff.

10 million in shoddy repair

[DJW]

I think Mr Mayor is getting so bad advice on numerous fronts. Take 3m width (which is a pretty narrow traffic lane) off the existing area of promenade and there isn't much width left in the majority of beach road. The better evenings on beach road with a bit of character were the market stall days and on the current walkway it was well crammed. The obvious is to get rid of any sort of on street parking and have 2 max lanes of traffic (one would be preferable but I'll bow to the need to move traffic)

 

Please keep the palm trees and never employ the urban planner who thought grasscrete with no grass was the product to use after ripping out the shrubs and flower beds that used to be under the trees on much of beach road. Grasscrete is a difficult product to get grass to grow in ideal open conditions but filled with sand and in a shaded area below trees it will never be successful.

 

Never mind if the dig it up in 2012/13 they can do it all again in say 2016 and get more kick backs

[lordarunotai]

130 million baht in payoff.

10 million in shoddy repair

 

Thats how it go's, then in 2 or 3 years time start the whole process all over again.

[surfinasia]

another lane for traffic - and reducing the promenade is NOT a step forward in my opinion

 

Just for fun, we know it will never happen. what is your vision?

I agree with the quote. In fact, I think closing the road to traffic and encouraging cafes and similar to sprawl across the street is a good idea, a LOT more casual seating on the street, a LOT more shade in the form of trees and umbrellas.

Also unifying the umbrella cover is stupid, oh I know, lets make them all grey! ffs how drab will a single colour be.....

 

In the interests of transport for st's, maybe an electric tram light rail can go in..... complete with sexy driver and ticket girls.

At each end there can be a taxi rank and SOME of the sois can allow traffic, with lanes to allow them to return to no2 rd on the adjacent soi.

 

It seems a shame that in a street almost completely dominated by farang that we get no say..... Hmmmm.

[TheLostShark]

It seems a shame that in a street almost completely dominated by farang that we get no say..... Hmmmm.

 

Welcome to Thailand

[Airblade]

Pattaya Pattaya i like you so much but why you do like this?

Erosion from the sea and then they will additional one traffic lane to Beach Road. This will take away about 3 meters off beach area. I understand the traffic problem is not good at all but who could allow Central to be building on soi 9 and etc. For sure sooner or later no beach in pattaya.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Airblade

[DJW]

During recent trip I had an opportunity to "see" what a traffic free beach road could be like. In preparation for a afternoon anti-drugs parade the BIB shut down all access on Beach Road and were very strict in enforcing. Before the parade started it was earily quite but very relaxing. A few pics of a traffic free beach road for the Mayor's consideration of what could be.......

 

I agree as a consequence the traffic on Second Road, Soi Buckhaow and Third Road was messed up but that could be made easier with some decent planning and longer term traffic management - like knocking down halh of Soi Buckhaow widening the road and adding a footway

[Scumbag]

.. but that could be made easier with some decent planning and longer term traffic management

lol..that is completely incompatible with Thai mentality. That is the reason that it is all totally fucked up to start with as there was a complete absence of any planning as the city grew.

 

You mention knocking down part of Soi Buakhao and widening it. The widening of the road to Jomtien took something like 3 years because they didn't have the foresight to secure all the required land before they started....lol I think Soi Buakhao would be a harder project as it is so narrow.

 

I have yet to see any work starting on the project detailed in the OP.

[dean2926]

This whole plan is arse up in my opinion.

 

They should be doing everything they can to get the traffic out of Beach Road, not create more.

 

It's an absolutely ideal setting for a pedestrian mall, what a sensational place for tourists without the through traffic.

 

Pedestrians bring the money to the businesses here, not through traffic or hundreds of parked motorbikes blocking access to everyone.

 

An extra traffic lane only provides space to hold more traffic, it cannot increase the flow as the traffic still has to exit by merging lanes that always create bottlenecks and reduce the traffic flow.

 

And to reduce the promenade by three metres is madness, in some places it needs to be increased, not reduced.

 

But at least they say all the umbrellas will be the same colour.

 

I'm not even confident they can get this right.

[AESTHETUS]

Make/create a new beach with the best sand by a Dutch company.. look how they repare the coastline !!

Edited July 17, 2012 by AESTHETUS

[socrates]

It would also be an idea to ban ALL cars Parking on 2nd Road - allow designated Loading Bays and some parking here and there for disabled drivers and the like - that would create at least one lane extra without knocking down any buildings

 

On BR they also need to ban parking - put new lower speed limits in say 20 mph AND enforce them this would mean cars would get to the bottlenecks slower and improve the flow of traffic

 

Create pedestrian crossings at several points on BR and 2nd Road and teach the Thais that pedestrians have the right of way at these points

 

Some of the biggest culprits of dangerous driving are the ones on Motorcycles - hit them with fines and keep doing so until they get the message

[Scumbag]

It would also be an idea to ban ALL cars Parking on 2nd Road - allow designated Loading Bays and some parking here and there for disabled drivers and the like - that would create at least one lane extra without knocking down any buildings

 

On BR they also need to ban parking - put new lower speed limits in say 20 mph AND enforce them this would mean cars would get to the bottlenecks slower and improve the flow of traffic

 

Create pedestrian crossings at several points on BR and 2nd Road and teach the Thais that pedestrians have the right of way at these points

 

Some of the biggest culprits of dangerous driving are the ones on Motorcycles - hit them with fines and keep doing so until they get the message

lol..that would be the way it would be done in the West. It is not going to happen in Thailand any time soon.